Hi Kimka, That agrees with what I have seen around here. There are zero milkweeds in the cultivated fields, and there are some milkweeds along our roadsides. Last year there were milkweeds growing along our roadside as close as 100 yards from where I am sitting now. Not a lot, but some. I didn't notice any caterpillars or chrysalises on them, either. They did put out a lot of their fluffy airborne seeds, though, so there is hope for them. In our immediate area, most of the roadside does not get mowed, because there are deep drainage ditches that prevent the mowers that are used here from mowing the ditch area. I have seen the highway department use mowers that are on long extension arms that could mow such inaccessible areas, but they don't use that kind of equipment in this area. So the roadside milkweeds are safe in this area for the time being. If the Monarchs would just use them. As for those many counties across the country that are mowing the roadsides for weed control, they probably aren't even aware that they are hurting the butterflies. But if butterfly activist groups made them aware, they probably wouldn't "cease and desist" in their mowing. Their argument might be that the safety of the motorists was more important than the butterflies. There are extensive areas that are not suitable for agricultural use. The wide pathways under cross country high voltage power lines are kept clear of trees for obvious reasons, and the meadow flowers that grow there attract butterflies of many kinds. Perhaps those areas could be deliberately seeded with milkweeds. And perhaps the railroads could be persuaded to join in a Monarch conservation effort. Kimka, I agree with you totally that the recent decline in Monarchs is not from farmers keeping Milkweeds out of their fields. But I am not sure the recent Monarch decline is due to a recent change in roadside mowing either. At least, I haven't seen a recent change in that. We had a bad drought last year and, in fact, we technically are still in that. Droughts are typically multi-year. Maybe this is another "climate change" thing. ZM

I had a gut instinct the bee's getting sick are not only from GE crops contain systemic pesticides running through every part of the plant. If an insect , like the honey bee who has to collect pollen, feed from, return to the colony, etc., and not be harmed by this is kidding himself. It is fact that a human who consumes food with trace amounts of these toxins is linked to health problems. The bee not only eats and collects, it builds a colony of wax that houses the eggs! Now how long do you think it would take before we saw the epidemic? Not long because they are insects. Rather then discount this as a scare tactic article, respect the simple facts. GE crops are going to be designed to not require bee's, so who are they to care? To answer Wayne 5, you are correct. They do need the bee's, many almond orchards hire beekeeping services to bring their bee's to be released down the rows. The problem is if consumers continue to use systemic pesticides, sprays and the like, you will never see any beneficial insects like praying mantis or lady bug. And if you do use chemicals and they are in your garden, you probably have seen the last. If they really did work, then why on earth did the GE crop need to be designed? I know the answer if your interested. I have fought against GE crop foods which will now be allowed to be in baby food without being labeled as a GE product. If you do your homework, like is like saying hormones in poultry and dairy products is harmless. We have proof this is far from the truth. The goverments consumer stand on this is "BUYER BEWARE". So if the chicken gets bigger and matures faster by hormones, then we eat the chicken with the hormones what happens to us scary! NOVA Science team did a documentary about the human body it is shocking. Young girls development is documented at an alarming rate. I would like to believe Honey bee's are smart enough to stay away from suspect plants. But they learn by evolution. The bee can't avoid a species because the colony perished. They have no way of detecting right now. So what should we all do? We can watch the numbers disappear. By the way, the bee's are not just dying off from the reported bee keepers, they simply are disappearing. No sign of foul play, disease, not one bee body lying dead on the ground, nothing. Maybe the bee's knew their options to live were limited by the bee keeper and possible pestisides. They saw their colonies not up to par and searched for a location, became ferrel with an organic garden. That is exactly what happened one year ago in my backyard. They just thrived, and recently split up with a new queen and swarmed to hopefully, a safe envirorment. My have has either an new queen or the old one, either way, mother nature is in charge. I collect no honey. I wish I could, but my job is to provide the food in the garden for them. Thank you for letting me vent, sorry I got off track.

Thank you Fetters. Really good post. Quite timely for us as DH has suggested putting in a garden pond. My first question was, "What about the mosquitoes?" I was intrigued by the mention of Lemon Eucalyptus. E maculata sounded somewhat familiar so I assumed we call it something else down here. I googled it and this is what I found. E maculata is known as Spotted Gum or Honey Gum (good for bees). E citriodora is known as Lemon-Scented Gum. And there is a hybrid E maculata citriodora. Recently these particular gums have been reclassified from Eucalyptus to Corymbia (useful to know in case the nurseries change the labels). I debated whether to mention the next bit. In some areas they are getting a reputation as an invasive weed. It's hard to know when such a reputation is truly warranted. (I have some birch trees, which are most definately not indigenous to my area, and I do get seedlings coming up, but after all these years my birches haven't taken over the nearby bushland. Or is that because they have no chance against the Patterson's Curse, which was once an introduced garden flower.) I suppose all I can say is do some research if you're thinking of planting one. Perhaps conditions in the areas of the US where they are grown are such that they are happy enough to grow okay but not so happy that they get out of control. And the good news is if you change your mind after you've planted one, it apparently makes really good timber. Hello OzOrganic. Sorry to hear about your landlord issue. Don't get me started on that subject. Hope you find a solution soon.

I wasn't recommending you take the courses necessarily. Just pointing out that good breeders have standards. We have to be careful where we get our stuff from wild or otherwise or we can have problems. Monarchs have three (is that right Larry?) distinct populations with different or no migratory histories. Those in Florida do not migrate and have the highest levels of OE. Unknowledgeable breeders can cause problems by using this stock. Anyhow, lurk around IBBAs site for disease info, also Monarchparasite.org. Both those sites have very good disease information. I don't know of anyone who will help you for free other than the posters here. Amanda Lawrence at Mississippi State University conducts a bug pathology lab I believe but they charge you. You may be able to contact her for some free info. Check out this part of the IBBA web site. http://www.butterflybreeders.org/public/health/disease_prevention_MSU.html I don't think it is anything you are doing. It sounds more like you have a disease of some type in the batch. Start over with clean materials and eggs from a known source. As hobbiests, most of us never need to sterilize eggs. Only breeders and researchers need to do that. They have to ensure clean stock as they breed thousands of insects in close quarters. If you have plenty of healthy milkweed outside that freezes to the ground each year, you should be fine. Either let a momma come to you or order eggs from a known reputable source. Keep in mind that later in the summer OE levels do go up. If you can catch mom, you can test her to see what her levels are as well. This can give you a clue as to what is up. Other than clean cage conditions, the thing to watch out for are tachinid flies. They will lay eggs either on the caterpillar or on the leaves you feed to the caterpillar. So, wash or rinse the leaves well. Viruses get transmitted this way too. Again, being hobbiests most of us do not have too many problems with this, just occasionally. Oh, also wash your hands if you have been digging in the dirt. This is how bacterial diseases get transmitted. I have a bad habit of weeding and then handling caterpillars. It just seems to go togther. But Bt, that nice organic pesticide used on tomatoes, is isolated from soils. Good luck, Elisabeth